what is management - narod.ru · web viewfayol’s 14 principles of management in his...

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________Nina Medvedeva

MODULE 2MANAGEMENT CULTURE

OFBUSINESS ORGANISATIONS

Section 1: Business world

I. READING

1. Read the following 6 texts. Discuss the answers to the questions below each text. Sum up the main points of all the texts in writing (300 words).

1. WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?

To the vast majority of managers, management is about action rather than ideas. They are motivated by the sense of achievement when they raise profits, successfully introduce new products into the marketplace, record a sale, or bring in a new customer. Their language is direct, snappy, and peppered with talk of the bottom line. To them management is not a passive, studious, desk-based art, but something which is immediate and active. Management lives in the here and now.

The managers are right. Management is active, not theoretical. It is about changing behavior and making things happen. It is about developing people, working with them, reaching objectives, and achieving results. Indeed, all the research into how managers spend their time reveals that they are creatures of the moment, perpetually immersed in the nitty-gritty of making things happen.

But, management is nothing without ideas. "There's nothing so practical as a good theory," George Bain, principal of London Business School

has observed. Ideas drive management as surely as the immediate problems which land on manager's desks or which arrive via their e-mail. Decisions have to be based on ideas, as well as instinct. Without ideas managers flit desperately from crisis to crisis. They cannot know where they are going, why they are doing something or what they will achieve without the vital fuel of ideas.

This observation of the economist Keynes holds true for management: "Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."

Ideas count. Look at the postwar resurgence of Japanese industry. Its growth was based on the precept of quality - this was largely based on the ideas and research of two Americans, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. While the duo were listened to in Japan their ideas were all but ignored in the West until the 1980s. By then it was almost too late. The Japanese converted theory into practice and became a huge industrial power thanks, in part, to their highly effective implementation of the ideas of Deming and Juran.

The Japanese have a tradition of revering ideas and being able to translate them into dynamic practice. Early management thinkers, such as Frederick Taylor and Mary Parker Follett, were

__________________________________________ Module 2. Management Culture of Business Organisations

1

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________widely acknowledged in Japan while receiving only tepid reactions in their home country. In contrast, ideas in the West tend to be seen as distractions and are categorized as instant solutions or as simply impractical. There is often an unwillingness to try to understand or to try and make them work. The requirements of the moment take precedence in a world beset by ever-increasing demands on time, energy, and money.

Paradoxically, though managers appear to be bogged down in the minutiae of the moment, they are hungry for ideas, new perspectives and fresh approaches. Management books sell in their millions. Managers want to know and learn more. The problem is that they simply don't have the time. Research by the Management Training Partnership found that three quarters of personnel directors buy at least four man-agement books a year. However, only one in five are actually read.

That management books tend to be decorative is not the only problem. The key ideas which have shaped and continue to drive management are often regarded as inflexible. They concentrate on the "one right way" to carry out a task or achieve an objective. In reality, managers know that it is unlikely that one particular approach will solve all their problems. Reengineering, the latest in a long line of corporate saviors, has been the idea of the 1990s. Yet, even its most enthusiastic adherents would admit that reengineering cannot cure all known organizational ills.

Ideas count, but they are not ready-made solutions. No matter what consultants might suggest, there is no panacea. Faced with a crisis a manager cannot reach across for the file on "How to implement strategy" and hope for instant results. Achieving success in the 1990s and beyond involves a multitude of ideas, approaches, and skills.

The trouble is that managers appear addicted to the idea of the quick fix. There is still an air of desperation in the way that managers cling to new ideas. Fads and fashions emerge in a fanfare of superlatives only to disappear almost as quickly.

The learning organization was one of the fads of the early 1990s. Peter Senge's “The Fifth Discipline” led the way. An international bestseller, it propelled the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor to international renown. By 1995 Senge was receiving a less enthusiastic response. "It's part of the fad cycle," he told “The Financial Times”. "People consume then drop fads and ideas all the time and corporations are no different."

Indeed, research at MIT suggests that management fads follow a regular life cycle. This starts with academic discovery. The new idea is then formulated into a technique and published in an academic publication. It is then more widely promoted as a means of increasing productivity, reducing costs or whatever is currently exercising managerial minds. Consultants then pick the idea up

and treat it as the universal panacea. After practical attempts fail to deliver the promised impressive results, there is realization of how difficult it is to convert the bright idea into sustainable practice. Finally, there follows committed exploitation by a small number of companies.

Ironically, blame for this obsession with the latest trend can be partly attributed to the professionalization of management. Once management became regarded as a profession, it was assumed that there were a number of skills and ideas which needed to be mastered before someone could proclaim themselves a professional manager. The skills of management were regarded like a bag of golf clubs. When the occasion demanded a particular skill it was extracted from the bag and put to work. New skills could occasionally be added to the managerial bag of tricks when, and if, required.

Unfortunately, managerial life is no longer so straightforward. Typically, work by the UK's Management Charter Initiative to identify standard competencies for all middle managers emerged with several hundred. Simplifying the complex is never easy.

Despite this, the faddishness of managers continues as they seek out new skills and new solutions to perennial problems. "It has become pro-fessionally legitimate in the United States to accept and utilize ideas without an in-depth grasp of their underlying foundation, and without the commitment necessary to sustain them," observes Richard Pascale in “Managing on the Edge”

The search for the secret of management has taken managers and organizations through bewildering loops and has spawned an entirely new vocabulary. Managers have embraced brainstorming as a useful tool; they have explored Douglas MacGregor's Theory X and Theory Y; negotiated Blake and Mouton's "Managerial Grid"; been driven on by "Management by Objectives"; discovered strategic management through Igor Ansoff in the late 1960s; been converted by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman's “In Search of Excellence”; and have, no doubt, also tried their hand with quality circles and various forms of Total Quality Management. And yet, there is no single best way to manage -simply a ragbag of shared experiences, short-lived best practice and high expectations.

It is not that these various ideas are poor concepts. Many do work, but they are not set in tablets of stone. They have to be flexible, and used when needed, rather than as all encompassing "solutions." "Management has always been beset by fads and fashions, gurus and demagogues. But never before has there been such a sheer volume of new approaches," says Edward Lawler of the Center for Effective Organizations. "This has led many managers to reach one of two incorrect conclusions: that the new approaches are all hype with no substance, or that a particular program is the answer. The reality is more complex and challenging."


2

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________QUESTIONS:1.What is management for managers meant to be?

2.What is management said to be about?

3.How is the research portraying managers?

4.What drives management ahead?

5.What was the post war growth of Japanese industry based on?

6.Are managers described as intensive readers on the problems of management?

7.What idea is mentioned as the latest in a long line of corporate saviors?

8.What does achieving a success in management involve?

9.What does a research at MIT suggest?

10.What can the blame for the obsession with the latest trend be partly attributed to?

11.What are the skills of management compared to? Why?

12.Why does the faddishness of managers continue?

13.Who are the chief beneficiaries of the fad industry emerging?

14.What ‘bewildering loops’ has the search for the secret of management taken managers and organizations through?

15.What are the two wrong conclusions many managers have been led to reach?

2. FROM THE MACHINE AGE TO THE INFORMATION AGEThe roots of modern

management lie in the "machine age" of the nineteenth century, though the practice of management has far more historical antecedents. Commentators repeatedly observe that the machine age is fast being

replaced by what is called the "information age." In the words of futurist Alvin Toffler, the "brute force economy" is being superseded by a "brain force economy."

This new era presents revolutionary challenges to the way managers manage and how they think about those they manage. "The closer we get to the information age, the more questionable become the traditional practices and precepts of Management. (In most companies management still comes with a capital 'M')," says Gary Hamel, coauthor of “Competing for the Future”. "In the machine age a manager was a professional.... Managers were given credentials.... A manager was an analyst (value chain analysis, segmentation analysis, cost structure analysis). The act of management took place within the boundaries of industry convention, company tradition, vested authority, national context, functional specialization, the demonstrably feasible, and the here and now. Management was by the rules, by the numbers and by the book. That was then, this is now. The boundaries are gone. The game has changed. The rule book is out of date."

Of course, there was never an actual "rule book" of management. But, like an unwritten constitution, there were ways of doing things and

expectations, which shaped every single aspect of managerial activity.

THE MACHINE-AGE RULE BOOKThere was no hallowed ring-binder, but the

"rule book" of machine age management was based on a number of precepts:● command and control - management was

exercised on people through a kind of benign dictatorship, inspired by military role models, the manager told people what to do and then supervised them.

● one right way - the instructions of management were assumed to be right. The role of those who were managed was not to question or suggest alternative approaches. There was a belief in one right way to undertake tasks.

● subjugation not subversion ~ the machine age was built around subjugation. Contrast this with the positive encouragement of what would once have been regarded as plain subversion in some of today's more innovative companies.

● labour not human resources - the workforce was "labor," hired hands with no stake in the organization. Labour was generally in plentiful supply and the company did not owe them anything, though they were expected to demonstrate loyalty to the company.

● national not global - perspectives were generally national, sometimes regional, and rarely international.

● security not insecurity - while employees were not offered recognition or responsibility, there was an unspoken contract built around security. Companies had a feel of permanence, dominating towns and their markets. The future seemed predictable and their place in the future even more predictable.


3

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________QUESTIONS:1. What did Alan Toffler compare the two ages to?2. What does this new era present revolutionary changes to?3. What makes the ‘rule book’ out of date?4. What was the main function of an ‘unwritten constitution’?5. What precepts was the ‘rule book’ mainly based upon?

3. MANAGEMENT AS SCIENCEFREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR

If there was any one creator of the machine-age rule book, FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR (1856-1917) should probably take the credit. Today, the name of the American inventor and engineer is now known by only a few practicing managers. And

yet, his work forms the cornerstone of much of the management practice of the twentieth century. The man may be forgotten, but his legacy lives determinedly on and, once described, would be instantly recognized by most managers.

Taylor was the originator of what became known as "scientific management." To the eyes of the late twentieth-century observer, scientific management would be considered anything but scientific. Taylor's science was built around minute observation of the best way a task could be undertaken and completed. Having found the best way, people could then be made to follow it, to the second, in the prescribed manner.

Taylorism was based on the notion that there was a single "best way" to fulfill a particular job and that then it was a matter of matching people to the task and supervising, rewarding, and punishing them according to their performance. The job of management was to plan and control the work.

"Hardly a competent workman can be found who does not devote a considerable amount of time to studying first how slowly he can work and still convince his employer that he is going at a good pace. Under our system a worker is just told what he is to do and how he is to do it. Any improvement he makes upon the orders given to him is fatal to his success," observed Taylor.

Taylor sought to dehumanize work. In doing so, he laid the ground for the mass production techniques which speedily emerged after his death. "His unforgivable sin was his assertion that there is no such thing as 'skill' in making and moving things. All such work was the same, Taylor asserted. And all could be analyzed step-by-step, as a series of unskilled operations that could then be combined into any kind of job. Anyone willing to learn these operations would be a 'first-class man,' deserving 'first class pay.' He could do the most advanced work and do it to perfection," Peter Drucker has accurately observed.

A more indirect, but equally correct, critique comes from Kurt Vonnegut's novel ‘Player Piano’: "If only it weren't for the people, the goddamned people," said Finnerty, "always getting tangled up in the machinery. If it weren't for them, earth would be an engineer's paradise." Taylor sought to create such a paradise.

Since the rise and fall of labor intensive, highly functionalized, mass production, Taylor's ideas have been routinely derided - treating workers as unthinking robots able to carry out carefully prescribed tasks ad infinitum. Similarly, in Taylor's philosophy the role of managers and supervisors little beyond holding the stop-watch and admonishing - or speedily sacking - malingerers or poor performers. Taylor also emphasized quantity rather than quality, something which is increasingly out of line with today's management practice.

While there is a great deal of truth in these interpretations, they underestimate the era in which Taylor lived and worked; the significance (and continuing impact of his ideas in many businesses) and they tend to gloss over some of his insights which do genuinely translate into the modern environment. In Scientific Management, for example, Taylor writes: "It becomes the duty of those on the management's side to deliberately study the character, the nature and the performance of each workman with a view to finding out his limitations on the one hand, but even more important, his possibilities for development on the other hand." This idea is continually echoed in much of today's management literature.

Similarly, comparisons can be made between the 1990s' fascination with reengineering - which breaks down organizational processes into their constituent parts - and Taylor's attempts at analyzing each and every aspect of the production process.

As Peter Drucker has observed, Taylor's concepts may appear to be inhumane and limited to the modern manager, but he was the first person to really begin to think about the actual act of work rather than taking it for granted. For all his addiction to the stopwatch, Taylor was a truly remarkable man. He patented numerous inventions, excelled at tennis and (perhaps his most significant legacy) persuaded baseball pitchers to throw overarm rather than underarm because, typically enough, it was more efficient.


4

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________

THE ROUTE TO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENTTaylor's theories were first published in 1911 when he detailed how to improve work in a factory in

five basic stages:1. Find, say 10 or 15 different men (preferably in as many separate establishments and different

parts of the country) who are especially skillful in doing the particular work to be analyzed.2. Study the exact series of elementary operations or motions which each of these men use in doing

the work being investigated, as well as the implements each man uses.3. Study with a stop-watch the time required to make each of these elementary movements and then

select the quickest way of doing each element of the work.4. Eliminate all false movements, slow movements, and useless movements.5. After doing away with all unnecessary movements, collect into one series the quickest and best

movements as well as the best implements.

QUESTIONS: 1. Who is said to be the creator of the machine-age rule book? Why?2. How can ‘Taylorism’ be summed up?3. What did Taylor lay the ground for?4. What did Peter Drucker say about Taylor’s ‘unforgivable sin’?6. What critique of Taylorism is said to come from the author of ‘Player Piano’?7. What is the place of managers in Taylor’s philosophy?8. What principles are in ‘the route to scientific management’?9. Which Taylor’s idea is said to be continually echoed in today’s management literature?10. What makes Taylor a truly remarkable man?

HENRI FAYOL In Europe the first steps towards identifying

what management entails were taken by the Frenchman HENRI FAYOL (1841-1925), a still underestimated figure in the fledgling years of management theorizing. While Taylor gained attention (and later notoriety) for his "scientific management," Fayol's work is generally forgotten. Yet, Fayol pursued a much broader path than Taylor and his codification of what he thought management involved remains valuable.

FAYOL’S 14 PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENTIn his General and Industrial Management, published in 1916, Fayol laid down 14 principles of

management, These were:1. Division of work: tasks should be divided up and employees should specialize in a limited set

of tasks so that expertise is developed and productivity increased.2. Authority and responsibility: authority is the right to give orders and entails the

responsibility for enforcing them with rewards and penalties; authority should be matched with corresponding responsibility.

3. Discipline: is essential for the smooth running of business and is dependent on good leadership, clear and fair arguments and the judicious application of penalties.

4. Unity of command: for any action whatsoever, an employee should receive orders from one superior only; otherwise authority discipline, order and stability are threatened.

5. Unity of direction: a group of activities concerned with a single objective should be coordinated by a single plan under one head.

6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest: individual or group goals must not be allowed to override those of the business.

7. Remuneration of personnel: may be achieved by various methods and the choice is important; it should be fair, encourage effort, and not lead to overpayment.

8. Centralization; the extent to which orders should be issued only from the top of the organization is a problem which should take into account its characteristics, such as size and the capabilities of the personnel.

9. Scalar chain (line of authority): communications should normally flow up and down the line of authority running from the top to the bottom of the organization, but sideways


5


communication between those of equivalent rank in different departments can be desirable so long as superiors are kept informed.

10. Order: both materials and personnel must always be in their proper place; people must be suited to their posts so there must be careful organization of work and selection of personnel.

11. Equity: personnel must be treated with kindliness and justice.12. Initiative: all employees should be encouraged to exercise initiative within the limits imposed

by the requirements of authority and discipline.13. Stability of tenure of personnel; rapid turnover of personnel should be avoided because of the

time required for the development of expertise.14. Esprit de corps: efforts must be made to promote harmony within the organization and

prevent dissension and divisiveness.

Fayol - unlike Taylor - recognized that esprit de corps is a vital ingredient in any organization. To Taylor any identification with fellow workers was a distraction rather than a motivation.

Fayol also divided a commercial organization's activities into six basic elements: technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting, and

management. The management function, Fayol believed, consisted of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. It is likely that many practicing managers, even today, would identify similar elements as the core of their activities.

QUESTIONS:1. Who pursued a much broader path in management theorizing? Why do you think so?2. Where are the Fayol’s principles of management laid down?3. Which of the 14 principles do you think are of primary importance. Why?4. What was a distraction rather than a motivation to Taylor unlike Fayol?5. What does the management function consist of according to Fayol?

4. BEYOND SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENTScientific management spawned a number of corollaries. One of the most influential is the work of MAX WEBER (1864-1920). Weber took Taylor's highly practical supervisory form of management and sought

to apply it to the organization as a whole – if there is a best way to do a job, there must also be a best way of running an organization.

Parkinson's observations were part of the slow process of humanizing the more extreme thinking of the machine age (a process which has conspicuously failed in many organizations). But, in the decades since the Second World War, the key ideas have become more humanized as management thinkers have turned their attention to what motivates people and how managers can transform their roles from ones of supervision to leadership.

Even so, the virility of machine age thinking can be seen in the conclusions reached by LOUIS ALLEN in his 1973 book “Professional Management”.

Alien's research began in 1953 and aimed to establish which management methods were most effective and what companies should do to manage more effectively.

The echoes of Taylorism are there, though they are refined and developed. Indeed, in the eyes of many, Taylor's legacy lives on. More recently than Louis Alien, Konosuke Matsushita, founder of the Japanese electronics giant which carries his name, has observed that Western firms remain "built on the Taylor model. Even worse, so are your heads. With your bosses doing the thinking while the workers wield the screwdrivers, you're convinced deep down that this is the way to run a business ... We [Japanese] are beyond the Taylor model. Business, we know, is now so complex and difficult, the survival of the firm so hazardous in an environment increasingly unpredictable, competitive and fraught with danger, that its continued existence depends on the day-to day mobilization of every ounce of intelligence." The truth of Matsushita's damning observation is only now being fully explored and uncovered - but only by those brave enough to do so.

ALLEN’S MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES“Professional Management” put forward four functions of management based on a belief that

managers think and act rationally - planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Alien broke these functions down into 19 management activities:


6


1. planning function - forecasting, developing objectives, programming, scheduling, budgeting, developing procedures, and developing policies

2. organizing function ~ developing organization structure, delegating, and developing relationships

3. leading function - decision-making, communicating, motivating, selecting, and developing people

4. controlling function - developing performance standards, measuring, evaluating and correcting performance.


7

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________QUESTIONS: 1. What is Max Weber’s contribution to scientific management said to be?2. What does Parkinson’s law imply?3. When did the key management ideas become more humanized? Why?4. Where can the virility of machine age thinking be best seen?5. What are the functions the ‘Professional Management’ put forward?6. What is the essence of Konosuke Matsushita’s words?7. What is said to be only now fully explored and uncovered?

5. BREAKING THE MANAGERIAL MYTHScientific management

was not interested in mobilizing every ounce of intelligence, simply every ounce of necessary intelligence and energy to complete a particular task. It also nurtured a myth of management which usually bore little relation to reality. Managers are

not always right. Nor do they think and act rationally all of the time. HENRY MINTZBERG'S book. The Nature of Managerial Work, also published in 1973, proved a significant step forward in that he cast aside many long-held, but idealistic views.

Mintzberg found managers flitting from subject to subject, crisis to crisis, unable to concentrate for any length of time without the phone ringing or a colleague knocking at the door.

Revealed to be human after all, later analyses of managers' behavior have tended to highlight the

softer side of management. It is much more than dictatorial supervision.

For example, over 700 managers - in a variety of organizations and at all levels of management - were surveyed at the Singapore Institute of Management at the beginning of the 1990s. From factor analysis five "mega-components" of management work were identified:1. Goal setting and review2. Creating a conducive working environment3. Managing quality4. Relating to and managing the external environment5. Managing performance.

Only the first of these components could be said to be consistent with machine-age management. The others belong firmly in the new world.

The rule book is out of date. This is not to say that there is a need for a new rule book. Management by the rules is redundant when the rules are in a constant state of irrational flux.

MINTZBERG'S MODEL OF MANAGERIAL WORKMintzberg found:1. a similarity in managerial work, whether carried out by the company president, the health

service administrator, or the general foreman. He categorized it into 10 basic roles and six sets of work characteristics;

2. while differences exist arising from functional or hierarchical level, they can be described largely in common roles and characteristics;

3. the managerial job is made up of regular and programmed duties as well as nonprogrammed activities;

4. the manager is both a generalist and a specialist;5. the manager is reliant on information particularly that which has been verbally received6. work activities are characterized by brevity, variety, and fragmentation;7. management work is more an art than a science, reliant on intuitive and nonexplicit processes8. management work is increasingly complex.Mintzberg's model of managerial work identified three overall categories and specific roles within each:1. Interpersonal category:

a. the figurehead role where the manager performs symbolic duties as head of the organization,b. the leader role where he/she establishes the work atmosphere and motivates subordinates to

achieve organizational goals,c. the liaison role where the manager develops and maintains webs of contacts outside the

organization.2. Informational category:

a. the monitor role where the manager collects all types of information relevant and useful to the organization,


8


b. the disseminator role where the manager transmits information from the outside to members in the organization,

c. the spokesman role where he/she transmits information from inside the organization to outsiders.

3. Decisional category:a. the entrepreneur role where the manager initiates controlled change in his/her organization

to adapt to the changing environment,b. the disturbance handler role where the manager deals with unexpected changes,c. the resource allocator role where he/she makes decisions on the use of organizational

resources the negotiator role, where the manager deals with other organizations and individuals.

QUESTIONS:1. What is the main merit of Henry Mintzberg’s ‘The Nature of Managerial Work’?2. What did later analysis of manager’s behaviour tend to highlight?3. Which of the five ‘mega-components’ of management work could be said to be consistent with machine-age

management? Why?4. What is implied by Anita Roddick’s words? 5. What are the essentials of Mintzberg’s model of managerial work?

6. NEW SKILLS FOR THE NEW WORLDWhat is the job of the

manager in the information age? "Increasingly, managers at all levels will be required to do much more than just implement the plans put in place at higher levels," says David Birchall of the UK's

Henley Management College. "They will be expected to define the problems, facing their organizations in the rapidly changing and increasingly complex world in which their businesses operate, and communicate this to the executive level. Information search and interpretation will be key skills."

The management competences, identified by the National Westminster Bank as crucial are representative:● information search: environmental scanning● conceptual flexibility: considers alternatives simultaneously● interpersonal search: explores and understands others' viewpoints

● managing interaction: involves others, builds teams● developmental orientation: helps others develop.

In the new world the skills required of managers are diverse and continuously expanding. Some of the basics remain. These have been summed up in the unspeakable acronym, POSDCORB, which stands for:● Planning● Organizing● Staffing● Directing● Coordinating● Reporting● Budgeting.

Many, if not all, these activities remain central to many managerial jobs. But, in addition, new managers are expected to:● manage on an international scale,● manage cultural diversity,● respond to multiple sources of authority,● combine a variety of leadership and team roles● act strategically,● utilize technology,●communicate internally.

QUESTIONS:1. Why are the management competencies, identified by the NWB, described as ‘representative’?2. What does the acronym POSDCORB stand for?3. What are new managers expected to do?

(from ‘Key Management Ideas’ by Stuart Crainer)


9

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________2. Read the 4 texts below. Note the terms and the information you can not do without in business. Write 15 Wh-questions. Work in pairs asking and answering questions. Sum up the main points in the form of an oral talk.

1/ (MBO) Management by ObjectivesMBO is a system

which was first described by Peter Drucker in 1954, in his book ‘The Practice of Management’. Since then, MBO has attracted enormous interest from the business world, and its principles have been

applied in many of the world’s largest companies.In his book, Peter Drucker emphasized that an

organization and its staff must have clear goals. Each individual must understand the goals of the enterprise he/she works for, and must make a contribution to them. It is also vital, in Drucker’s view, that the

individual knows what his/her manager expects of him/her. He/she must know what sort of results he/she is expected to achieve.

If an organization uses the Management by Objectives approach, it must pay careful attention to planning. This is because each individual has clearly defined objectives. And these will contribute to the overall objectives of the enterprise. With MBO, individual and organization objectives are linked. A special feature of MBO is that the subordinate participates with his/her manager in developing objectives. After these have been worked out, his/her performance, in relation to the goals, can be assessed. MBO, therefore, focuses on results. The subordinate’s performance is judged in terms of how well or badly he/she has achieved his/her goals. Various kinds of MBO systems are used in organizations.

2/ (QWL) The Quality of Working LifeOver the last thirty years, a

new approach to management has been developing. Those favouring it say that the way to increase workers' efficiency is to improve their job satisfaction and motivation. Followers of the Quality of Working Life movement (QWL) have been trying

out various methods of making work more interesting. These include job enlargement, job enrichment and new forms of group work.

With job enlargement, the worker is given additional tasks to perform. Thus, the operator of a word-processor may be asked to do filing duties as well. Job enrichment involves giving extra responsibilities to workers such as production, planning, quality control and technical development of equipment. In some organizations, special types of

work groups have been formed where workers share responsibility for certain tasks. For example, at the Volvo car plant in Kolmar, Sweden, assembly workers do not work on a moving production line. They are organized into thirty teams of fifteen to twenty members. They have their own tasks, like assembling heating and electrical systems, and they work in their own part of the factory.

As can be seen, the basic idea of QWL is that a worker should have an interesting, even challenging job. QWL encourages managers, therefore, to be sensitive to the needs of employees.

The roots of the QWL movement can be traced back to the 1920s and 1930s. It was at this time that the famous Hawthorne Studies were carried out. These were held at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, USA, from 1927-32. Most of the studies were directed by Professor Elton Mayo, a Harvard University psychologist

3/ The Manager’s Role

An interesting modern view on managers is supplied by an 'American writer, Mr Peter Drucker. He has spelled out what managers do. In his opinion, managers perform five basic operations. Firstly,

managers set objectives. They decide what these should be and how the organization can achieve them. For this task, they need analytical ability. Secondly, managers organize. They must decide how the resources of the company are to be used, how the work is to be classified and divided. Furthermore, they must select people for the jobs to be done. For this, they not only need analytical ability but also understanding of human beings. Their third task is to motivate and communicate effectively. They must be able to get people to work as a team, and to be as productive as possible. To do this, they will be


10

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________communicating effectively with all levels of' the organization - their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. To succeed in this task. managers need social skills. The fourth activity is measurement. Having set targets and standards, managers have to measure the performance of the organization, and of its staff, in relation to those targets.

Measuring requires analytical ability. Finally, Peter Drucker says that managers develop people, including themselves. They help to make people more productive, and to grow as human beings. They make them bigger and richer persons. In Peter Drucker's

view, successful managers are not necessarily people who are liked or who get on well with others. They are people who command the respect of workers, and who set high standards. Good managers need not be geniuses but must bring character to the job. They are people of integrity, who will look for that quality in others.

'A manager develops people, including himself or herself... (and) helps them to grow and become bigger and richer persons’. Peter.Drucker.

(from ‘Keys to Management’ by David Cotton)

4/ Theory X and Theory YIn ‘The Human Side of

Enterprise, Douglas McGregor outlined two opposing theories of work and motivation. What he calls theory X is the traditional approach to workers and working which

assumes that people are lazy and dislike work, and that they have to be both threatened (for example, with losing their job) and rewarded. It assumes that most people are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and have to be looked after.

Theory Y, on the contrary, assumes that people have a psychological need to work and want achievement and responsibility.

Later theorists argued that theory Y makes much greater demands on both workers and managers than McGregor realized. Abraham Maslow, for example, spent a year studying a Californian company that used theory Y, and concluded that its demands for responsibility and achievement are excessive for many people. He pointed out that there are always weak and vulnerable people, with little self-discipline, who need protection against the burden of responsibility. Even strong and healthy people need the security of order and direction. Managers can not simply substitute Theory Y for theory X. They have to replace the security provided by theory X with a different structure of security and certainty.

(from ‘English for Business Studies ‘by Ian MacKenzie)

3. Find the answers to these questions in the text ‘How to be a great manager’

QUESTIONS:1. What are the qualities a successful manager is expected to possess?2. Whose responsibility are the errors made by team members?3. What is the most underused management tool?4. How to make critique less offensive for subordinates?5. What is the difference between MBWA and MBWAWP?6. How to level out discrimination and favoritism?7. What is the major disadvantage of weak managers?8. Why is the approach to child-rearing compared to that of management?9. What does the idea of making oneself redundant imply?10. Why should managers be on the look-out for higher level activities to occupy their time?

AT THE MOST general level, successful managers tend to have four characteristics:• they take enormous pleasure and pride in the growth of their people; they are basically cheerful optimists -someone has to keep up morale when setbacks occur;• they don't promise more than they can deliver;• when they move on from a job, they always leave the situation a little better than it was when they arrived.

The following is a list of some essential tasks at which a manager must excel to be truly effective.

Great managers accept blame: When the big wheel from head office visits and expresses displeasure, the great manager immediately accepts full responsibility. In everyday working life, the best managers are constantly aware that they selected and should have developed their people. Errors made by team members are in a very real sense their responsibility.

Great managers give praise: Praise is probably the most under-used management tool. Great managers are forever trying to catch their people


11

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________doing something right, and congratulating them on it. And when praise comes from outside, they are swift not merely to publicize the fact, but to make clear who has earned it. Managers who regularly give praise are in a much stronger position to criticize or reprimand poor performance. If you simply comment when you are dissatisfied with performance, it is all too common for your words to be taken as a straightforward expression of personal dislike.

Great managers make blue sky: Very few people are comfortable with the idea that they will be doing exactly what they are doing today in 10 years time. Great managers anticipate people's dissatisfaction. Great managers put themselves about: Most managers now accept the need to find out not merely what their team is thinking, but what the rest of the world, including their customers, is saying. So MBWA (management by walking about) is an excellent thing, though it has to be distinguished from MBWAWP (management by walking about - without purpose), where senior management wander aimlessly, annoying customers, worrying staff and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

Great managers judge on merit: A great deal more difficult than it sounds. It's virtually impossible to divorce your feelings about someone - whether you like or dislike them -from how you view their actions. But suspicions of discrimination or favouritism are fatal to the smooth running of any team, so the great manager accepts this as an aspect of the game that really needs to be worked on.

Great managers exploit strengths, not weaknesses, in themselves and in their people:

Weak managers feel threatened by other people's strengths. They also revel in the discovery of weakness and regard it as something to be exploited rather than remedied. Great managers have no truck with this destructive thinking. They see strengths, in themselves as well as in other people, as things to be built on, and weakness as something to be accommodated, worked around and, if possible, eliminated.

Great managers make things happen: The old-fashioned approach to management was rather like the old-fashioned approach to child-rearing: 'Go and see what the children are doing and tell them to stop it!' Great managers have confidence that their people will be working in their interests and do everything they can to create an environment in which people feel free to express themselves.

Great managers make themselves redundant: Not as drastic as it sounds! What great managers do is learn new skills and acquire useful information from the outside world, and then immediately pass them on, to ensure that if they were to be run down by a bus, the team would still have the benefit of the new information. No one in an organization should be doing work that could be accomplished equally effectively by someone less well paid than themselves. So great managers are perpetually on the look-out for higher-level activities to occupy their own time, while constantly passing on tasks that they have already mastered.

(from ‘Business Class ‘by D.Cotton)

II. KEY VOCABULARY OF THE SECTION

Give the Russian equivalents of the following. In case you encounter difficulties, turn back to the texts above (tasks 1-3) and elaborate on them further.

AAcademic discoveryAccept and utilize ideasAccording to one’s performanceAct of managementAppear addicted to the idea of quick fix

BBe all hype with no substanceBe beset by fads and fashionsBe bogged down in the minutiaeBe built around minute observationBe built around subjugationBe currently exercising managerial mindsBe given credentialsBe in plentiful supply


12

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________Be routinely deridedBe treated with kindliness and justiceBecome professionally legitimateBenign dictatorshipBrain force economyBring in a new customerBrute force economy

CCarefully prescribed tasksCarry out a taskCling to new ideasCompetent workmanConsume fads Convert the bright idea into sustainable practiceConvert theory into practiceCore of activitiesCorporate saviorsCost structure analysisCure all known organizational ills

DDay-to-day mobilization of every ounce of intelligenceDehumanize workDemonstrably feasibleDemonstrate loyalty to the companyDevelopment of expertiseDrive managementDrop fads

EEmphasize quantity rather than quality Encompassing solutionsExercise initiative

FFad cycleFaddishness of managersFads and fashionsFail to deliver the promised impressive resultsFledgling years of management theorizingFlit desperately from crisis to crisisFlow up and down the line of authorityForm the cornerstone of the management practiceFulfill a particular job

GGain attentionGain notorietyGet tangled upGood leadership

HHallow ring-binderHigh expectationsHuge industrial power

IIdentify standard competencesImpact of one’s ideasIn-depth graspInflexible ideasInformation ageInnovative companiesInstant solutionsIntroduce new products into the market place

J


13

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________Judicious application of penalties

LLimited set of tasks

MManage more effectivelyManagement by objectivesManagement by the rulesManagement fadsManagement functionManagement literatureManagement thinkersManagerial gridMass production techniquesMatch people to the taskMiddle managers

OObsession with the latest trendOrganizational processesOut of line with management practice

PPick the idea upPlain subversionPoor conceptsPositive encouragementPracticing managersPrecept of qualityPresent revolutionary challengesPrevent dissension and divisivenessProfessionalization of managementPromote harmony within the organizationPursue a much broader path

QQuality circles

RRagbag of shared experiencesRaise profitsRapid turnover of personnelReceive a less enthusiastic responseReceive ordersRecord a saleRemain valuableRemuneration of personnelRequirements of authorityResurgence of industryRewards and penaltiesRise and fall of mass productionRun an organization

SScientific managementSeek out new skillsSegmentation analysisSelection of personnelSeries of elementary operationsShape every single aspect of managerial activitySheer volume of new approachesShort-lived best practiceSideways communicationSmooth running of businessSolutions to perennial problemsSpawn a number of corollariesStability of tenure of personnel


14

Business English is … ___________________________________________________________________________Strategic managementSupervisory form of managementSurvival of the firm

TTake the creditTheory XTheory YTotal quality managementTraditional practices and precepts of managementTransform the roles from ones of supervision to leadershipTreat an idea as the universal panacea

UUnderestimated figureUnderlying foundationUndertake tasksUnskilled operations

VValue chain analysisVested authorityVirility of machine age thinking

WWithin the boundary of industry convention

III. PRACTICE

1. Listen to a talk by Michel Itan of a recruitment agency : “ Leadership vs. Management”. Pick up information to:• explain the distinction he draws between leadership and

management,• specify what he means by ‘role models’,• comment on his company’s approaches to the issues of

management and leadership

Introduction:For most businesses, true leadership can be

difficult to cultivate. As M. I. thinks, leaders must be more than exceptional managers. Aside from ensuring that long-and short-term objectives are met, they must inspire peers and establish the tone and tenor of office life. In Russia the business community should take this issue very seriously and not be distracted by the

1998 August financial crisis or world energy prices. After all its future will lie in its business leadership.

How do companies develop true leaders? M. I. says that it's a process that must come from the top, with those already in management positions setting good examples and investing in proper training — good leadership comes from within the corporate environment.

2. Read the following two texts. Working in groups, point out the features of management culture, characteristic of the companies discussed. Compare the approaches, indicating differences and similarities in a short essay (250 words).

McDonald'sIt seems appropriate that Fred Turner, McDonald's current chairman, started out as a shoe salesman. In such ways the leaders in many

people-intensive organizations learned what it was to get the basics right — to meet customers, provide real-


15


time service, and take pride in and responsibility for a mundane job. McDonald's is, above all, better at the basics. Says Turner: "History shows that the competitors' management involvement doesn't last. They just don't have the depth of attention to detail."

McDonald's believes that senior managers should be out in the field, paying attention to employees, training, and execution. Says the founder. Ray Kroc, "I believe that less is more in the case of corporate management; for its size, McDonald's today is the most unstructured corporation I know, and I don't think you could find a happier, more secure, harder working group of executives anywhere."

McDonald's talks endlessly about the individual's contribution. Kroc argues, "A well-run restaurant is like a winning baseball team, it makes the most of every crew member's talent and takes advantage of every split-second opportunity to speed up service." Kroc focuses on the little things: "I emphasize the importance of details. You must perfect every fundamental of your business if you expect it to perform well." Getting the details right, McDonald's way, requires an astonishing amount of learning and intensity. Says a former employee, "When I first started, they put a little white hat on me that said 'trainee.' They started me right off in the easiest of the jobs — cooking French fries. Then I moved to fries and shakes. So it went on up to handling the buns and cooking the burgers. We only had one small room where we could take breaks. There was a TV and cassette going on all the time, stressing some aspect or another of the way McDonald's does things. How to cook a better burger, how to keep the fries crisp, the whole bit."

"The book" at McDonald's spells out procedures and details. For instance, "Cooks must turn, never flip, hamburgers." Or, "If they haven't been purchased. Big Macs must be discarded in ten minutes after being cooked and French fries in seven minutes. Cashiers must make eye contact with and smile at every customer." And on it goes.

Despite the rigidity of procedure surrounding many such areas, store managers are encouraged to

exercise autonomy and keep things lively. Fortune reports that "Debbie Thompson, who started out at McDonald's as a cashier eight years ago, and now, at 24, manages the company-owned store at Elk Grove Village, sometimes livens up the lunchtime rush hour by offering $5 bonuses to the cashiers for taking in the most dollars and handling the most customers. She gives a plaque to the crew member of the month.".Another employee adds: "We always got paid a dollar for making a record amount of sales for an hour. Also, if you had a three hundred dollar hour [in food sales] you got a dollar. Everyone working in that period got a dollar. On the record days you got two dollars. We were all shooting for the extra bucks. It meant something."

A vital part of the system is Hamburger U. The New York Times reports:

The American flag and the McDonald's flag fly high over the expressway running through the backyard of Hamburger University in a suburban Chicago town. Inside, McDonald's franchisers and company managers learn skills to reinforce what the golden arches of 614,000 similar brick buildings in mostly suburban and rural communities have come to symbolize: predictability in atmosphere and taste, or, as McDonald's founder Ray Kroc put it, "the gospel of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value." A high school drop out, Mr. Kroc has donated millions to charity and urges employees to become active in community charities to further McDonald's image, but he refuses to support higher education. In his book [Grinding It Out] he writes, "One thing I flatly refused to give money to is the support of any college. I have been wooed by some of the finest institutions in the land but I tell them they will not get a cent from me unless they put in a trade school." ... Two thousand students "graduated" from the school Hamburger U. last year.... One lucky student in each course receives a golden chefs hat for making the largest contribution to class discussion.... Another walks away with a ceramic abstract model of a hamburger for highest academic honors.... McDonald's points to the fact that the American Council on Education recommends college credit of up to six semester hours for Hamburger U. courses taken by those pursuing a degree in two or four year colleges ... there are 18 courses from one or two day seminars to week long sessions on "market evaluation," "management skills," and "area supervision."… McDonald's success is based on fast food and friendly service at a low price. Courses deal with McDonald's style and emphasize motivation. ...

IBM


16


IBM is perhaps one of the biggest and oldest American companies practicing an intense people orientation. The only issue with IBM is how to start describing it. With the seventy-year-old open door policy? The

senior Mr. Watson's $l-a-year country club, established for all employees in the 1920s? The philosophy that starts with "respect for the individ-ual"? Lifetime employment? Insistence upon promotion from within? IBM day-care centers, IBM hotels, IBM running tracks and tennis courts? Monthly opinion surveys by the personnel depart-ment? A very high success rate among salesmen? The intense training?

IBM's total history is one of intense people orientation. And as at McDonald's, it's reflected in the tiniest details. Walk into IBM's New York financial branch. The first thing that greets you is a massive floor-to-ceiling bulletin board with glossy photographs of every person in the branch hung under the banner: NEW YORK FINANCIAL ...THE DIFFERENCE IS PEOPLE.

Watson started an open door policy early and it is still maintained today. Some of his managers used to complain because he so regularly favored the employees. One former colleague of the senior Mr. Watson says, in fact, he can hardly ever remember the senior Watson taking the manager's side. That's the kind of thing that makes such policies work. They are credible. Managers do go to the trouble of thoroughly checking things out, as in similar open door situations at Levi, HP, Tandem, and Delta Airlines. It's used. Things happen.Thomas Watson, Jr., describes how his father started, owing many continuing IBM policy cornerstones: "T. J. Watson didn't move in and shake up the organization. Instead, he set out to buff and polish the people who were already there and to make a success of what he had. That decision in 1914 led to the IBM policy on job security, which has meant a great deal to our employees." Watson notes that his father even adhered to the policy in the thick of the Great Depression. "IBM produced parts for inventory and stored them. From it has come our policy to build from within. We go to great lengths to develop our people, to retrain them when job requirements change, and to give them another chance if we find them experiencing difficulties in the job they are in." The senior Watson developed his enlightened views under

the tutelage of the fabled John Patterson, the founder of NCR. According to Watson, Jr., when others were fighting the union, Patterson was breaking ground by "providing showers on company premises and company time, dining rooms serving hot meals at cost, entertainment, schools, clubs, libraries, and parks. Other businessmen were shocked at Patterson's notions. But he said that they were investments that would pay off, and they did."

Watson followed Patterson's footsteps in many other ways. In his own words, "Almost every kind of fanfare was tried to create enthusiasm. ... Our early emphasis on human relations was not motivated by altruism but by the simple belief that if we respected our people and helped them to respect themselves, the company would make the most profit."

Detail after detail reinforces the people theme at IBM. A 1940 article in Fortune about IBM, then a $35 million company, talks about wholly immaculate factories, the $l-a-year country club for all employees, the IBM song book ("We know and we love you, and we know you have our welfare in your heart"—the "you" in the song being of course, the senior Watson).

Of the senior Mr. Watson, Fortune says he was a "born homilist who began early to confect the altruistic rules of thumb that have since guided his life and policies. He journeys half the time, working 16 hours a day, spending almost every evening at the functions and celebrations at his innumerable employee clubs.... He relishes talking to employees, not as a curious supervisor, but as an old friend."

There is not much to add to the early Watson stories, except for the remarkable fact that IBM has stayed about the same. The open door policies, the clubs, the simplicity, the homilies, the hoopla, and the training are as intense in relation to the styles of today as they were fifty or sixty years ago. An IBM executive put it succinctly:

"You can foul up on 'most anything and you'll get another chance. But if you screw up, even a little bit, on people management, you're gone. That's it, top performer or not."

Finally, to complete the story on people at IBM, as at other companies, the policies probably would not work if the people way down the organization were not proud of what that organization does. Buck Rodgers, the senior marketing man at IBM, says:

"Above all, we seek a reputation for doing the little things well." What IBM stands for, the quality that a Hewlett-Packard or a Mc-Donald's delivers, the ownership of productivity ideas at Dana—in every case the simple pride in what the company does is the keystone for an overarching orientation toward people.

3. Listen to an interview with Naomi Delh, senior manager at an accounting, tax and consulting firm in Russia (D&T). Pick up information to cover the following:


17


1. her main responsibilities in the firm2. her working day3. things, she enjoys most in her work4. things, she finds most challenging about her job5. how working in Russia compares to working in Canada6. if she has any language problems, working in Russia7. the ratio of women to men in the firm8. how being a woman affects career development9. if D&T have programs designed to encourage women in the

workplace10. what social benefits and work flexibility are like at D&T

Introduction:Naomi Delh is a stranger in a strange land. Far

away from her native French Canada, she now lives and works in Moscow helping foreign companies to compete profitably in the often-tangled worlds of

Russian business and tax law. She spoke with us about the adventure that doing business here in Moscow is and revealed what it’s like to be a woman in a top position in the contemporary corporate world.


18


4. Read through the ‘opinion pool’, presenting the ideas of 10 women CEOs and Presidents of companies. Working in pairs,A. categorize all the ideas on the list thematically(1) and assess(2) them.

1 2Themes: Assessment:

1. work/life2. men/women

3. people/management4. management styles

5. management techniques

1. true2. original3. rubbish

B. get prepared to present and defend your categorization (prepare visuals and hand-outs),C. choose some one idea you liked (disliked) most and explain your choice;D. sum up the ideas in accordance with your categorization in the form of a brief written outlineE. write an essay on one of the topics above (180 words)

1. Jose Natori(The Natori Company, New York):’There’s really no dividing line between our business life and our personal life. It’s just our life - it’s integrated.’

2. Judy Koch Buchanan (RSP Manufacturing Fremont,): A/ ‘ You are not going to be successful in business if your people aren’t

growing and learning.’B/ ‘Women’s management styles tend to be based more on relationships

because most women are taught from day one to be concerned about and interested in relationships. That’s not to say that men don’t value relationships, but I think our strength is that we first establish relationships and then build on them to create management teams’.

C/ ‘You have to look carefully at people’s strengths. Some people would be successful doing one thing, but less competent doing another.’

D/ ‘People also take great pride in themselves when they can teach others’.3. Marjorie Silver(Pinsly Railroad Company):A/ ‘Nowadays, we never put our

eggs in one basket. We make our money by handling many different commodities. It is possible to make a lot of money with one commodity if it is very successful. But you can go broke too, if suddenly that commodity falls into disuse.’

B/ ‘Our goal is to have a healthy, growing company not only into the third generation, as we have now, but into the fourth. The reason we place so much importance on building long-term customer relationships and maintaining our reputation in the industry and our community is to ensure its viability for the grandchildren.’

4. Kavelle Bajau(I-Net Bethesda):A/‘I never settle for second best.

We hire the very best people we can, we give them a good environment to work in, and then we let them go exercise their creativity. I expect them to constantly make self-evaluations of their abilities. That’s important because shortcomings in key people can inhibit the growth of the company.’

B/’Keeping a good balance is so hard, but so important. When all is said and done, none of us can survive as an island ultimately what is truly valuable is to have a good family life.’

5. Dian Owen(Owen Health Care Houston):A/ ‘Once you can understand and

see a problem clearly, you’re on the way to a solution’

B/ ‘We believe so strongly in teamwork because it is a good way for as many people as possible to have a say about the thing that affect them.’

C/ ’Nowadays my business life and my private life are emotionally mingled. My associates are my friends. Many are also single. So there is always someone to go with to a concert or whatever. So, I’m never lonely.’


19



20


6. Wilma Mankiller(The Cherokee Nation Tahlequan): A/ ‘You have to put aside your own personal

feelings and allow everybody, no matter their point of view, to articulate their positions. Emotions can sometimes run high, and if ego battles are allowed to erupt, it can destroy a group.’

B/ ‘ I think it’s important to take risks, to dance along the edge of the roof’.

C/ ’We’re missing a lot of great solutions to society’s problems because we do not hear women’s voices in every sector of society. This is part of restoring sacred balance to the world!’.

7. Dorothy Brunson(Brunson Communications Philadelphia)A/ ’…money doesn’t determine who I am’.B/ ‘When you’re just starting out, you are driven by economics’.C/ ‘The most important thing in this business – in any business – is to

understand the business you are in. That means you have to know what it takes to get your product into the market place. You also have to be very clear about who is going to buy that product and why. It sounds so simple, but it’s amazing how many people don’t understand this. Some may be good at understanding how an organization functions, or they may know how the product is put together, but they might not have any idea who their customers are. You have to understand the whole as well as its parts.’

D/ ‘Calling a young man or young lady ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’, may be for the first time in their lives, makes them feel like somebody. They grow based on the way you address them and treat them.’

E/ ‘Many people have come back to thank me for firing them’.F/ ‘I believe women are a special design of God’.

8/ Ruth M.Owades(Calyx & Corpolla San Francisco):A/ ‘It is great fun to watch our people grow and

learn. They are eager, smart, hardworking, committed, and loyal and we are all having a good time.’

B/ ‘From the beginning I wanted this company to be different from those I had worked for – to be a place where people are valued, and where we can be the mentors we never had when we needed them. It’s really so simple. I guess I have always believed that it is just as easy – and so much better – to run a successful company being a nice person, a thoughtful person…’

9. Jane E.Shaw (Alza Corporation Palo Alto):A/ ‘ You have to have the courage of your convictions. You need to

believe that what you are doing is right, and you need to stay focused. Without a clear course in mind, it’s very easy to be swayed by everybody’s opinions. You have to listen to and consider opinions, and be ready to make changes when you need to. But if you know inwardly that you are doing the right thing and can stay focused on that, it works.’

B/ ‘Now, in a typical decision-making situation, I will gather together all the relevant people to lay out a clear course. And then we’ll sit and discuss it. Sometimes I don’t even voice my position, even though I have one. Instead, I’ll try to draw people out. I’ll ask them to define, to clarify, to explain and then someone, may be even a junior person, will come up with a statement of the position I might have had in mind all along – and then that person can take credit. Sometimes I end up changing my position because there is more information and better input.’

C/ ‘It’s not enough just to sit here and wait for people to come in; they won’t always come to you. You have to get out as much as you can to really know what is going on’.

D/ ‘One strives for balance, for the only thing you have is time. So the question is, how are you going to use that time? You have to set priorities, and it means you can’t always have set times for doing everything. Sometimes I find myself doing laundry at midnight on Sunday nights!’

10. Carol Bartz (Autodesc, Inc., Sausalito):A/‘If you think there’s anybody in the world who

cares about you or your career or your life as much as you do, you are mistaken. Nobody else really gives a damn’.

B/ ‘You and only you have control of your life. This is one of the most powerful things you can have. I have heard all kinds of excuses from people who say taking control is impossible – they blame company downsizing, a lousy boss, a lousy marriage, a lousy relationship. I have worked for lousy management and great management, big companies and small companies, and I’ve had good relationships and bad relationships, and none of that matters. What matters is that it is my job to manage myself – mentor myself- through these things.’

C/ ’When you are faced with a mountain, sometimes the best thing to do is go around it. A lot of women feel like they have to climb every mountain, but I say, pick your mountain, because there are a lot of them out there…’

D/ ‘ When you come into a situation from the outside, it is very important to start by respecting the history and the experience of the people who are already there.’

E/ ‘It is important for people to believe that their ideas will be heard – not adopted necessarily, but heard – and that they won’t be ridiculed. In this kind of environment, people will try very hard to work together, and the final decisions can be supported by everyone.’

F/ ’Of course, when you have a lot of clever, dedicated people, conflicts will come up. I do not tolerate anyone coming to me to badmouth a colleague. I say, “If you have an issue with him or her, go work it out with him or her.’

G/ ‘It is also important to remember that there is no such thing as balance – that is a fantasy. I am not capable of being a good CEO, a good friend, a good mom, a good wife, a good public citizen all at the same time. I can’t do this. I can only do a couple of these adequately at one time. And I can control which I am going to attend to and when.


21


You need not feel guilty about not being able to keep your life perfectly balanced. Juggling everything is too difficult. All you really need to do is catch it before it hits the floor!


22


5. Scan the following text for additional ideas to support or contradict the following statement: “Women are great managers”

Women strive to be leaders in business to achieve freedom and control. Being in business provides the freedom to make important decisions, influence lives, pursue a personal dream, and gain financial success.

Being in business gives a woman control over her time and how she spends her mental, physical, and physic energy. Businesswomen travel a perilous path to personal, financial, and spiritual reward. The journey is both terrifying and exhilarating.

Women who go into business or manage large organizations are obsessed with succeeding because so many people are watching and so much is at risk. We risk alienating our families because our business becomes a demanding baby. We risk losing our romantic relationships because our husbands and boyfriends resent our success. We risk losing friends

who are angry because they never see us anymore.But because so much is at risk – emotionally,

financially, and spiritually – we work even harder to succeed.

What drives a woman to devote her life to business? Some women worked very hard for big companies before starting their own. Some women’s whose ideas were rejected or their paths to the top were blocked. Their businesses were born out of a mix of frustration and inspiration. Others carefully climbed the corporate ladder and made it to the top without stepping on too many fingers. Their management styles vary, but their commitment is the same – to lead and succeed in a man’s world.

(from ‘On Our Own Terms’ by Liane Enkelis and Karen Olsen)

6. Listen to an extract from David Evans’s book “Management Gurus”, devoted to Tom Peters – the management ‘superstar’. Take notes while listening. Compare your notes with a partner and improve them as thoroughly as you can. Be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. What reason did Peters give to explain his words: ‘In this world we all know nothing’?

2. How much does Peters earn for each talk?3. What does he try to communicate to listeners by

showing a painting in the style of Jackson Pollock at his presentations?4. What sort of student was he in the 1960s?5. What was his association with the army about?6. Where did Peters study management?7. What are McKinsey & Co mostly famous for?8. What business experience did Peters have when he

joined McKinsey?9. What is the work of a consultant for McKinsey & Co said

to be like?10. What question did more and more people want to hear Peters’s answer to?

7. Read the next part of the chapter by David Evans about the history of the manual ‘In Search of Excellence’ by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. Make a list of the most interesting facts. Retell the extract in English.


23


A week later, the front cover of Business Week said, ‘Putting Excellence into Management’. Inside there was a four-page piece by Tom Peters that explained his main ideas. Although it was on page 196 of the magazine, lots of people read it and liked it. Peters says, ‘That was a huge piece of luck. The phone started ringing. It was the last day of peace I ever had.’

One of the phone calls was from a publishing company. They wanted him to write a book. Peters worked hard on the book for the rest of that year and continued into 1981. In fact he found it very hard to stop and by late summer of that year he had written 1300 pages. As a writer, Peters obviously had a lot to learn. The publishing company had asked him for a business book; they didn’t want another War and Peace !

Peters asked for help from one of his colleagues at McKinsey. Robert Waterman. Waterman was very different to the noisy, energetic Peters. He was a quiet man who enjoyed painting and he had a very clear mind. Waterman agreed to rewrite Peters’s book and to make it much shorter. By the spring of 1982, the work was finished. Now, they only needed a title.

Both Peters and Waterman wanted to call it ‘The Secrets of Excellence’. They liked it, the publishing company liked it, in fact everybody liked it, except the boss of McKinsey, Marvin Bower. He called the two men to his office.

‘As you know’, he said, ‘McKinsey never tells anyone its customers’ secrets. Gentlemen, I suggest that you find a new title’. Peters said afterwards, ‘It was like an order from God’.

Peters and Waterman thought hard about a new title. Peters suggested that they should call the book ‘Management By Walking Around’, but in the end he and Waterman decided on the title ‘In Search of Excellence’.

When the book was published in October 1982, nobody expected it to be a great success. The publishing company only produced 15 000 copies. Some magazines wrote about it, but they were not very enthusiastic. Most people simply ignored it.

But ‘In Search of Excellence’ was the right book at the right time. In the early 1980s, many Americans had lost confidence in their country’s economy. The big increase in oil prices in the 1970s had had a bad effect on US business and by 1982 over 10 per cent of US workers were unemployed. Many

people blamed US business for this situation. They said that Japanese companies were making products that were cheaper and better quality than US ones. They said that US business people had lost their way and that things were going downhill fast.

But Tom Peters and Robert Waterman disagreed. Their message was that Americans didn’t need to worry too much about the Japanese competition. They said that there were many examples of excellent companies in the USA and in their book, they described forty three of them. Nobody was very surprised by the companies they chose. They were nearly all big businesses like IBM, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, etc. But Peters and Waterman explained that these companies were successful because they did simple things well. These were companies that were close to their customers and that made things that the market really wanted. Above all, these were companies that didn’t think about their workers as machines. They were companies that put people first.

It was exactly the message that Americans wanted. After a slow start, the book started to sell in huge quantities and passed a million in its first eleven months. By the end of 1985 around five million people had bought it.

But as Peters soon realized, the book’s success wasn’t just because of its message. ‘In Search of Excellence’ had made business fashionable for the first time. People wanted a copy because it looked good on their bookshelves. Tom Peters guessed that although five million people had bought the book, only half of those people had opened it, perhaps 500 000 had read a few chapters and probably only 100 000 people had actually read it all.

Perhaps it was a good thing that so few people actually read it. Because soon people started to notice that the excellent companies in the book were not so excellent any more. Two years after it was published, a US business magazine showed that a quarter of the ‘excellent’ companies were having problems. Five years later two-thirds of the ‘excellent’ companies were in trouble and some had gone out of business completely!

But Tom Peters was not worried about that. He has never been afraid to say that he’s wrong. And he’s always been happy to change his mind. In fact, he started his 1987 book ‘Thriving on Chaos’ with the words, ‘There are no excellent companies’.


24


8. Listen to the rest of the chapter by David Evans and take notes of some more facts, building up an image of Tom Peters as a personality, an author, an excellent manager and a thinker. Put together all the facts, you have accumulated, listening to and reading through the chapter (tasks 6, 7, 8), to discuss:

1/ the traits of Tom Peters’ character2/ the facts of his biography and career3/ the constituents of his success 4/ the evolution of his views on management5/ the grounds for his ‘superstar’ status in management. Write a summary of the chapter. (250 words)


25


9.Read the following extract from Bill Gates’ ‘Business@The Speed of Thought’ Pick up information to explain and comment on his managerial ideas. Write 10 Wh-questions. Discuss the idea of a digital nervous system.

As the boss of Microsoft, the world’s most successful software company, I played a large part in the birth of the Information Age. In this book I explain the idea of a digital nervous system – the use of information technology to satisfy people’s needs at work and at home, just as the human nervous system supports the human mind.

Like a living creature, an organization works best if it can rely on a nervous system that sends information immediately to the parts that need it. A digital nervous system can unite all of an organization’s systems and processes, releasing rivers of information and allowing businesses to make huge leaps in efficiency, growth and profits. I have a simple but strong belief: how you gather, manage and use information will decide whether you win or lose.

The best way to put distance between your company and the crowd is to do an excellent job with information. There are more competitors today. There is more information available about them and about the market, which is now worldwide. The winners will be the ones who develop a world-class digital nervous system so that information can easily flow through their companies for maximum and constant learning.

I know what you’re going to say: no, it’s efficient process! It’s quality! It’s winning market share and creating brands that are recognized! It’s getting close to customers! Success, of course, depends on all of these things. Nobody can help you if your processes aren’t efficient, if you don’t care about quality, if you don’t work hard to build your brand, if your customers’ service is poor. A bad business plan will fail however good your information is. And bad practice will spoil a good plan. If you do enough things badly, you’ll go out of business.

But whatever else you have on your side today- smart employees, excellent products, loyal customers, cash in the bank – you need a fast flow of good information to make processes efficient, raise quality, and improve the way you put your plan into practice. Most companies have good people working for them. Most companies want to treat their customers well. Good, useful data exists somewhere within most organizations. Information flow is the lifeblood of your company because it enables you to get the most out of your people and to learn from your customers. See if you have the information to answer these questions:

What do customers think about your products? What problems do they want you to fix? What new features do they want you to add?

What problems do your partners have as they sell your products or work with you?

Where are your competitors winning business from you, and why?

Will customer’s changing demands force you to develop new capacities?

What new markets are appearing that you should enter?

A digital nervous system won’t guarantee you the right answers to these questions. But it will free you from the old paper processes so that you’ll have the time to think about the questions. It will give you the data to start thinking immediately, and to see the trends coming at you. A digital nervous system will make it possible for facts and ideas to quickly surface from deep in your organization, from the people who have information about these questions and, it’s likely, many of the answers. Most important, it will allow you to do all these things fast.

10. Watch ‘A Quality Culture’ video by Jan Bright (BBC) and collect the information on:1/ the company2/ the people3/ the managementPrepare and make group presentations on the 3 points above. Have a group discussion on the management issues, raised in Jan Bright’s video.


26



27

what is management - narod.ru · web viewfayol’s 14 principles of management in his...

Documents